Covers key events, issues, and developments in the presidency of James Monroe, including the consolidation of American national borders, the end of the First Party System, the beginning of the Era of Good Feelings, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and the articulation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823.

1. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil War
Part 6: James Monroe

2. MONROE’S
MAJOR ISSUES
Clarification of national borders
The Era of Good Feelings
The Missouri Compromise
The Monroe Doctrine

3. THE FIRST PARTY
SYSTEM (1789-1824)
In American politics, the First Party
System was characterized by the
dominance of the Federalists and
the Democratic-Republicans, and
by the disputes between them.
BEFORE THE FOUNDING
OF THE REPUBLIC
- Federalists
- Anti-Federalists
NO PARTY
- George Washington
FEDERALIST PARTY
- John Adams
THE DEMOCRATIC-
REPUBLICAN PARTY
- Thomas Jefferson
- James Madison
- James Monroe

4. TREATY OF 1818
• Negotiated by Monroe and his
Secretary of State, John Quincy
Adams, the son of John Adams.
• Jointly signed by the United
States and Great Britain.
• Clarified and simplified the
border between the United
States and Canada.
• Allowed for the joint American
and British control of the
Oregon Territory.

5. TREATY OF 1819
• Again negotiated by Monroe
and John Quincy Adams.
• Jointly signed by the United
States and Spain.
• Clarified and simplified the
border between the United
States and Spain, where the
lands of the Louisiana Purchase
met the present-day southwest
of the United States.
• Allowed the United States to
purchase Florida.

7. THE ERA OF
GOOD FEELINGS
Monroe’s successful handling of
foreign relations issues, a period of
economic prosperity, and the slow
dissolution of political opposition in
the Federalist Party, led to what is
known as the Era of Good Feelings.
It ended with economic downturn
following the Panic of 1819.

8. THE MISSOURI
COMPROMISE (1820)
• As settlement increased in the
western territories, these territories
petitioned Congress to be
transformed into states.
• By 1820, nine states that did not
exist at the time of the creation of
the United States had entered the
Union: Vermont, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana,
Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, and
Alabama. They were created from
pieces of the various territories
annexed by the United States.
• Each time a territory became a
state, it raised the question of
whether the new state should
permit or prohibit slavery.

9. THE MISSOURI
COMPROMISE (1820)
• The Northern states had mostly
abolished slavery. They worried
that too many slaveholding states
in Congress would make slavery a
permanent feature of the nation.
The Southern states had not
abolished slavery. They worried
that too many free states would
abolish slavery nationwide.
• In 1820, Missouri petitioned to
become a new state. Because
slavery was legal in Missouri, its
admission into the union would
have given the slaveholding states
more power than the free states.

10. THE MISSOURI
COMPROMISE (1820)
• As a compromise, it was agreed
that slavery would be prohibited
everywhere north of latitude 36o
30’
except for Missouri.
• It was also agreed that a new
northern state would be created in
order to keep a balance of power
in Congress. The result of this
agreement was the state of Maine.

12. AMERICAN COLONIES IN AFRICA AND THE FOUNDING OF LIBERIA (1821)
In the early 1800s,
a popular movement
arose in America
which proposed to
send free slaves
back to their African
‘homelands,’ even if
they had been born
in the United States.
The eventual result
was the creation of
the country now
known as Liberia.
James Monroe’s
support for the idea
led to the capital city
of Monrovia being
named after him.

13. THE MONROE
DOCTRINE (1823)
• Many South American countries
won independence from
various European imperial
powers in the early 1800s.
• As more and more nations
became independent, James
Monroe declared that the
United States military would
move against any European
powers who interfered in the
affairs of any nation in North or
South America.
• Under Monroe, the United
States became the ‘policeman’
of the Western Hemisphere.

14. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 2: Westward Expansion and Civil War
Part 6: James Monroe